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Legal action over remains

By MICHAEL LOWE

12 February 2007 - TASMANIAN Aborigines will today begin legal action in Britain's High Court to recover ancestral remains.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre legal director Michael Mansell said yesterday that the move followed success in the Tasmanian Supreme Court last week.

Mr Mansell said the court on Friday gave the centre the legal right to decide the fate of the remains.

He said the Tasmanian judgment related to the remains of 17 Aborigines being held by the Natural History Museum in London.

Mr Mansell said the centre was the most legitimate group to know what was best for the remains but the museum in London did not seem to care.

He said the remains, including a complete skeleton, were collected from burial sites across Tasmania before 1850 and sent to London.

Mr Mansell said the museum planned a range of tests for the remains - including taking DNA samples, X-rays and cutting away portions of bone, hair samples and tissues - which was unacceptable to Tasmanian Aborigines.

"It is absolutely contradictory to Aboriginal tradition," he said.

"They should hand over the remains unconditionally."

Lawyers for the centre in London will argue for an injunction to stop the tests and press for repatriation of the remains.

Mr Mansell said the remains had to be returned to their burial place, or as close as could be determined, and the spirits of the ancestors merged with the remains through traditional ceremonies.

He said the spirits were now in limbo because the remains had not been treated properly and that could affect living descendants.

He said the spirits could inflict misfortune if people knowingly did not live up to their spiritual obligations.

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Source: Tasmania Examiner

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